This invention relates to a straddle bed tool box for use in the bed of a pickup, directly behind the cab of the pickup. Generally, straddle bed tool boxes are known and commercially available. The tool box compartment is usually adapted for at rest positioning across the sidewalls and the forward end of a pickup bed. The compartment usually has a removable lid structure so that tools and the like may be stored inside of the compartment. Such compartments have attained wide popularity and are now in common usage.
With the advent of more and more pickups of varying sizes, it has become an ever increasing problem to have a straddle bed tool box which is of universal fitting capability. Thus, for example for small bed pickups, such as many of the foreign pickups, conventional available units cannot be used. In today's automotive market there are commonly large bed pickups, mid-size bed pickups, and the mini or compact bed pickups. All of these have a differing width and thus would, and do, require a differing length straddle box to traverse the width of the pickup bed. This, of course, makes a universal straddle bed tool box very difficult to achieve.
Moreover, straddle bed tool boxes are extremely difficult to package and ship because of their large bulk and length. Thus, shipment and storage of the same from remote manufacturing facilities to automotive accessory stores has been a constant problem in the art.
It is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a straddle bed tool box which, because of its three piece configuration is versatile and can be used with pickup truck bed widths varying from full-size, to mid-size, to compacts.
It is another primary objective of the present invention to provide a three-piece straddle bed tool box which can be disassembled and shipped easily in a small UPS shipping package.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a three-piece straddle bed and tool box which has end sections which are interchangeable and identical.
A still further objective of the present invention is to provide a straddle bed tool box which has a center section which is capable of ice storage for storing beverages in a cooling environment.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a straddle bed tool box which can be conveniently formed from molded plastic, which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture and which can be easily assembled with a minimum of labor.